Selecting the Logo

The Selection Process

I decided to create the website logo to make it look truly professional.

These are the initial designs that didn’t get chosen:

It was a tough choice turning down some of these ideas as they were designed to represent a roofing company, middle right looked to clip-arty, second one down on the left didn’t work as you shouldn’t have gaps in a roof, so having a gap in the logo just was a silly idea. While I thought it was a good idea to have a visual with the text, I didn’t think any of them worked enough and that they all overcomplicated the design therefore I chose this design;

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The Selection Process: Sketch – Digital

When designing the logo, I took into consideration all of my research about colours, fonts. I looked into my target audience and what my competitors were doing with their logos, then started to draw logos on paper, after that I scanned them into the computer and designed them in Adobe Illustrator in black and white first. This was the start of the ‘elimination’ process as I have found through my research, logos have to work in black and white first before you add colour, that meant I was able to ‘eliminate’ a few. After that I scaled them up and down to see how they worked at different sizes, again allowing me to ‘eliminate’ more. The next step I took was to add gradients in the background as this meant I how see how the weight of the fonts and the overall feel would look if I were to use that logo, this allowed me to eliminate further. Then I started to add the ‘pre chosen’ colours from my colour research into the actual designs, this allowed me to see whether the logos actually worked in the colours In wanted, this again eliminated more. The final step was to make adjustments to the fine details and typography which meant I had final versions of a the few logos I was happy with out of the 20 I started with from the beginning. To allow me to decide which one was my favourite, I again put a coloured background to the images and peer reviewed them to help me decide on my final version.

Design No.1 – PASSED

The thought process behind this logo design was basically that I wanted to create something that would somewhat copy a graph that shows good statistics. Simply by aligning the bars on a upward slant would show constant improvement. This is something that I should hope will occur with my college work over the next three years and since this logo is meant to represent myself and the work I produce, I thought this design was ideal.  The text is aligned with the edges and when it scaled down, the text removed appropriately, the logo is still recognisable. As you can see even against different backgrounds the logo still stands out, doesn’t become distorted or illegible. Given the facts I have just discussed I believe this is a good piece of design therefore I passed the logo.
Design No.2 – FAILED

  Again, similar to the previous design, the reason for the graph like format would be to indicate the improvement of my own personal work over the three years I study the web design course. Unfortunately this logo had it’s difficulties when in the Illustrator design stage with size of the font, and spacing within the shape. It looks good against multiple different backgrounds. The problem with this design is that the text becomes illegible when you scale down the image, there are issues with the fact that there six columns therefore would look uneven if I were to delete blocks meaning there would need a colour code and because logos need it work in black and white before you add colour, for these reasons I have failed this logo.

Design No.3 – FAILED

I started to look into luxury within design because I wanted my work to become across as high-standard, I came across the two images of the watch faces, my idea was to remove the digits from the clock face to give the impression that my design work was timeless and would work years later, much like many iconic brands in today’s market. As you can see I have two hands that are in the same time position as the Rolex image shown, the reason why clocks show this time is because it is meant to indicate a smile. Once I had completed this design in Illustrator, I realised it wasn’t going to work, firstly the hands looked like the propellers of a plane, secondly when the logo was reduced to the smallest size and lost the words it looked like a bird with wings. This is not what I wanted to put across to my target audience, so I decided to fail this design.

Design No.4 – FAILED

In this design I tried to create something simple, effective yet eye catching. I feel the logo feels very clip-art like and too simple, then when the logo is reduced down the text is illegible and makes a very pointless logo. On this basis, it was easy to fail this logo.

Design No.5 – PASSED

I really like this logo as it represents the web as an endless space which has no edges. It is simple, eye catching and effective. As you scale the image down, it is still recognisable. This is easily my favourite out of my twenty so I have passed this logo to the final stage. During peer review of this logo, people suggested that I should redesign the the shape myself instead of using an 8 on it’s side, give it a proper hierarchy and fit them in size order.
Design No.6 – FAILED

This design is one of my least favourite designs, I dislike the curve and I don’t think it represents me as a designer. It has no meaning and would still look reasonably boring with colour. When you scale this design down it loses the slight impact it had therefore I have failed this design.

Design No.7 – FAILED

This design was meant to represent timeless design, meaning that something I design today would still be relevant in 2, 5 10 years down the line. While it was an interesting concept, and a good idea, I don’t believe the logo really worked. Scaling down the design the text was undecipherable and the logo unrecognisable, for these reasons, I have decided to fail this design.

Design No.8 – FAILED

This design was a nice idea because it has a certain element of luxury to it, the bottom section to be coloured black white the top remains white with a black border. The circle is to represent an an old style wax stamp which was used to seal letters in years gone by. When showing this logo to my peer group I had feedback that it looked like a logo for a restaurant or an actual restaurant menu. This along with the fact that it doesn’t work in just black and white and that I have added colour means I am failing this logo.
Design No.9 – FAILED

I drew this logo based on road signs, I wanted my logo to stand out at a quick glance. This takes simple shape and type into account to make up the logo but I found this logo to be too simple, therefore I have failed it.

Design No.10 – FAILED

The aim of this logo was to focus all the attention into the typeface just like the ‘Range Rover’ logo with spacing between the type, while in theory a great idea, I thought I needed an actual graphic to assign to the type, therefore I failed this design.

Design No.11 – FAILED

This logo was inspired by this luxury packaging I found, I thought it would be interesting to see what it would turn out like, in the the end I found it looked like I was ‘boxed in’, maybe couldn’t think outside the box, which is not the image what I want to put across as a designer.

Design No.12 – FAILED

This was the worst design I made, I wanted to created a logo that would look like a smile, to present a happy designer that enjoys what he does, this logo is very poor in quality, and I very easily failed this design attempt.
Design No.13 – FAILED

This logo was meant to represent a certain status among my competition. The logo is too simple and I don’t think it looks very professional, therefore I have failed this design.

Design No.14 – FAILED

In this design, I wanted to give a clear example of hierarchy and order, somewhat how pyramid works, while in theory it is a good concept, it is either not going to work or just poorly executed, therefore I failed this design.

Design No.15 – FAILED

This design i one that I favoured from the beginning as I believed it ‘looked good’ but after realising it had no meaning whatsoever, it became an almost pointless logo. I have decided to fail this logo on the basis that it has no meaning behind it.

Design No.16 – FAILED

This logo again was designed using inspiration from the clock face to create the impression of timeless design. This time though (bad pun) I decided to enlarge my initials to make it more about me. Unfortunately, when placed against a coloured background you start to loose the detail in this logo, so for this reason, I have failed this logo.

Design No.17 – FAILED

The purpose of this design was to make me stand out from my competitors, placing myself on the top of a column or pillar rises me above the crowd. It gives the design an automatic hierarchy as the font has to be smaller to give the impression it is resting on a a pillar.

Design No.18 – FAILED

I didn’t expect this design to amount to much, but it actually surprised me when it got to the black and white stage. The problem is that it didn’t have any meaning and that

Design No.19 – FAILED

This design was an interesting one to work on, I wanted to recreate the luxurious feel in the images I have show, but because of the font just wasn’t good enough and the overall feel of the logo wasn’t up to scratch, I decided to fail this logo.

Design No.20 – FAILED

This design was an interesting one to work on, I created the following logo with the idea of having salt poured on the table with someone drawing my initials into it, while it looks okay, it is difficult to recognise at a small level and lacks meaning, therefore I have failed this design

Existing Web Design Blog logos

As part of my research I wanted to look into existing web designer blogs so I could understand their logos a little bit more.

http://www.robfenech.co.uk has a logo, that his name defined with a caption “a freelance web designer in London” which is really good because it tells the user what they do and where they are based before they even look at the website. The page also features a ninja throughout, this could be seen as powerful and show that the designer does not give up easily. His logo features a light blue colour which from my colour research has the connotations of trust, confidence, intelligence, faith, sincerity, intellect & expertise which are all things you would want from a web designer.

http://traceyrickard.co.uk has nice looking logo consists of grey and purple which has connotations of nobility, ambition, independence & creativity. As well as being quite a feminine colour the overall feel of the look is quite professional. The way it is shaped also gives it a cutout effect where its almost cut into a 1/4 and 3/4.

http://andy-gardner.co.uk logo is really good as it makes you feel like it is more personal . Written in a handwriting typeface is clear to see and also looks like a signature which would make it look a lot more professional.

The different connotations of colours

Red has connotations of;
– Fire
– Blood
– Energy
– War
– Danger
– Strength
– Power
– Determination
– Passion
– Desire
– Love
– Courage

Light-Red:
– Joy
– Sexuality
– Passion
– Sensitivity
– Love

Red is used by quite a variety of different organisations to represent different aspects of their company, HSBC bank uses it to represent their strength and power,

The ESPN logo plays on the energy, strength, power and determination connotations of red. It is also often found in white on a dark red background. This could indicate perfection, safety, coolness, willpower, vigour & willpower. 32Red, a gambling site uses it to represent the passion of the game and the desire to win money. Vodafone would use it to indicate the power they have among their competitors and their determination to be the best. Coca-Cola branding built on the american dream, by buying their product you are also buying into the whole ideology of coke being something that represents the american people. Coke would like you to feel passion, desire, love and courage when drinking coke, this is also reflected in their branding.

Pink:
– Romance
– Love
– Friendship
– Passiveness
– Feminine

Dark-Red:
– Vigour
– Willpower
– Rage
– Anger
– Leadership
– Courage
– Malice
– Wrath

Brown:
– Stability
– Masculine

Reddish-Brown:
– Harvest
– Autumn

Pink is a very feminine colour, so it is somewhat difficult to find a use in many branding examples but Barbie, cosmopolitan, Pink Floyd, Australian Pork and Pink Panther have all found their own uses for the colour. Pink Floyd and Pink Panther have no relevance to the colour other than the fact it is simple in the brand name, therefore it makes sense to use the colour. Australian Pork uses the colour because it simply represents the animal they sell, an icon of the snout of the pig in their skin colour, pink, symbolises them well. Cosmopolitan uses the colour because it targets a female audience, the content of their magazine and website is usually about romance, love and friendship.  The barbie logo is pink and plays on all the connotations of the colour, targeted at young girls, giving them an idealistic to look up too, to aim for. The word Barbie is actually greek for “Dry” which is a flowers name. Becoming feminine and playing on the romance, friendship and love side of things with “ken”.

Orange has connotations of;
– Joy
– Sunshine
– Tropical
– Enthusiasm
– Fascination
– Happiness
– Creativity
– Determination
– Strength
– Endurance
– Attraction
– Success
– Encouragement
– Stimulation
– Heat
– Healthy

Dark-Orange:
– Deceit
– Distrust

Red-Orange:
– Desire
– Sexual passion
– Pleasure
– Domination
– Aggression

Gold:
– Prestige
– Illumination
– Wisdom
– Wealth

Adobe Illustrator is a logo that uses the colours orange & brown to portray creativity, determination, success, encouragement and stability. These are all things you would want from a creative art program. An excerpt from Alan Male’s book “Illustration, a theoretical and conceptual perspective” reads;

“Illustration have a long history, it has been in existence for centuries, but only been recognised as a distinct discipline fairly recently. It is often confused with other disciplines most notably that of graphic design and fine art, perhaps because there is sometimes an overlap. However: illustration is about communicating a specific contextualised message to an audience. It is rooted in an objective need to fulfil a particular task. Illustrators need to have knowledge, understanding and insight regarding the context within which they are working, the subject matter, and work within the parameters and needs of the target audience.”.
I believe this only proves further that the logo is orange and brown for the reasons of attracting creativity, happiness and determination.

Orange logo is very straightforward and simple, it wants to attract fascination within its products so that people are stimulated by the services and encouraged to buy the product itself.  The logo is very straightforward and relies upon the colour for most of it’s branding.

The fanta drink logo uses the colour orange to its advantage very well as it has connotations of joy, sunshine, tropical, happiness, attraction and healthiness which are all things the company would want to portray to its customers to gain more sales.

There are also two technology companies Walkman and Rockstar, which are both two companies similar in appeal, one creates mp3 players, while the over creates games. They aspire to use the connotations of enthusiasm, encouragement and stimulation while using their services.

Yellow has connotations of;
– Sunshine
– Joy
– Happiness
– Intellect
– Energy
– Cheerfulness
– Honor
– Loyalty
– Cowardice

Dull Yellow:
– Caution
– Decay
– Sickness
– Jealousy

Light Yellow:
– Intellect
– Freshness
– Joy

Food chain McDonalds use yellow in their famous M sign to indicate joy, happiness, energy and cheerfulness which are all emotions people feel when eating their product. Best Buy is an american supermarket chain which again uses the same emotions to make people want to shop there.
Shell has an interesting colour palette in their logo as to indicate the energy they produce with a shell of red and a centre of yellow. Yellow Pages is a book filled with businesses, which has now transferred to the web, the book literally had yellow pages but the connotations in the sense of this business would make an intellectual book full of cheerful businesses.

Green has connotations  of;
– Nature
– Growth
– Harmony
– Freshness
– Fertility
– Safety
– Healing
– Stability
– Endurance
– Growth
– Hope
– Money (Dark Green)

Dark Green:
– Ambition
– Greed
– Jealousy

Yellow-Green:
– Sickness
– Cowardice
– Jealousy

Aqua:
– Healing
– Protection

Olive Green:
– Peace

Green is used by a various companies from different areas of market. Starbucks use the colour to embellish the nature, growth, freshness of the coffee bean process. They could possibly be using hope to make people believe their day starts with a coffee. In the technology sector we have Sony Ericsson, Android & Spotify who all want their company to be represented with connotations of fresh, endurance and growth. Finally there is Asda using green to ensure the customers know it is a stable company with safe and fresh products.

Blue has connotations of;
– Sky
– Sea
– Depth
– Stability
– Trust
– Loyalty
– Wisdom
– Confidence
– Intelligence
– Faith
– Truth
– Heaven
– Calming
– Tranquility
– Sincerity
– Cleanliness
– Consciousness
– Intellect
– Masculine
– Depth
– Expertise
– Responsibility

Light Blue:
– Health
– Healing
– Tranquility
– Understanding
– Softness

Dark Blue:
– Knowledge
– Power
– Integrity
– Seriousness

A lot of technology companies use blue in their logo to portray stability, trust & responsibility. Religiously Mary is known to wear blue robes. Twitter, Intel & Dell all great examples of companies that use the colour blue to portray these feelings to their users. Meanwhile at the same time blue can also feel very corporate, with similar connotations of strength, responsibility & stability ANZ, a New Zealand bank uses these colours.

Again a slightly different meaning can be taken from the Volkswagen logo where they are trying to portray trust, cleanliness and masculinity. As you can see from the advert which portrays a middle aged businessman, their target audience. Therefore the connotations of the colour fit perfectly for the logo.

Purple has connotations of;
– Royalty
– Power
– Nobility
– Luxury
– Ambition
– Wealth
– Extravagance
– Wisdom
– Dignity
– Independence
– Creativity
– Mystery
– Magic
– Feminine

Light purple:
– Romantic
– Nostalgic feelings
– Feminine

Dark purple:
– Gloom
– Sad Feelings
– Frustration

The Yahoo logo doesn’t really relate to too many of the connotations of these colours other than independence and creativity, last year in 2013, they ran a “30 Days of Change” campaign where the CEO Marissa Mayer would join the in house design team to create a new logo for 30 days straight, and decide out of the best. You can see them all here:

She stated “We didn’t want to have any straight lines in the logo. Straight lines don’t exist in the human form and are extremely rare in nature, so the human touch in the logo is that all the lines and forms all have at least a slight curve.” The logo they chose was this one:

The public were asked to vote and here are the results out of a total of 3,401 people:

The colour purple is also used by Monster job search site to indicate it’s powerful job search function, the reason it even exists.

Cadbury and Game use the colour in similar ways because they are both the biggest brand within their market they use it to represent their power and creativity whilst being again being a luxury rather than a necessity.

White has connotations of;
– Light
– Goodness
– Innocence
– Purity
– Virginity
– Perfection
– Safety
– Cleanliness
– Coolness
– Simplicity
– Sterility

Black has connotations of;
– Power
– Elegance
– Formality
– Death
– Evil
– Mystery
– Fear
– The Unknown
– Strength
– Authority
– Formal
– Elegant
– Prestigious
– Symbol of Grief

Schwarzkopf hair & beauty products have a professional logo to represent them, they have kept their logo in black and white as it indicates purity, cleanliness, elegance and authority. The reasons they would want this obvious as they target 25-35 year-old women.

WWF stands for WorldWide Fund for nature, they use the connotations of safety, cleanliness, death and almost is a symbol of grief, on one hand they represent the good that they do to help nature but on the the other hand they need to represent all the bad things that are happening to nature around the world, therefore the colours do a really good job of representing the organisation.

Adidas logo is three stripes are meant to represent a mountain, and the challenges that lie ahead should you choose to climb it, a perfect logo in representation of the sports products they sell but they use black and white as their primary colours, wanting to us the connotations of safety, coolness, strength and prestigious to represent them.

Nike logo, usually called “swoosh,” the famous tick is a brilliant logo that no longer requires any words next to it because it is now instantly recognisable coloured in the same ways as competitor company adidas uses the same connotation of safety, coolness, strength and prestigious.

Ray Ban – Banishing the Rays of the sun in its initial meaning, is a prestigious company which is a true fashion icon today. They do a very good job in representing their company with the connotations of light, perfection, safety, coolness, power, elegance, mystery, authority, formal, elegant & prestigiousness.

Colour Palette Tools

Having covered how colours represent certain feelings, I’m am now going to explore the various tools that designers use when organising their colour palettes.

Colour Lovers is a great site as it allows a designer to search for a colour palette for anything they are currently working, so for example if you are making a logo for a recording studio, you would visit http://www.colourlovers.com and type in “recording studio” and it would provide you with colours most relevant to your search. This is perfect for any project you might be working on.

Another great colour tool is the Adobe Kuler which allows you to create a colour palette based upon one colour and uses certain tone ‘rules’ such as  monochromatic, triad, complementary, compound and shades.It also allows you to upload an image and take certain areas of the image for their colour.

References:

http://www.wwwearables.com/techniques/color-analysis.htm
http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/meaning-of-colors.html
http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html
http://famouslogos.net/espn-logo/
http:/www.thefreedictionary.com/playboy
http:/www.quizz.biz/uploads/quizz/207769/1_Fj58G.jpg
http:/www.freelogovectors.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Adobe-Illustrator-Logo.jpg
http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/6787/what-does-it-mean-to-be-an-illustrator
http://www.sheknows.com/baby-names/name/barbie
http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/new_logo_for_yahoo_designed_in-house.php
http://underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/poll/tbase/new_logo_for_yahoo_designed_in-house_poll_question_b.txt
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/01/28/color-theory-for-designers-part-1-the-meaning-of-color/

Colours

http://www.colourlovers.com
http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/what-colors-really-mean-in-company-logos-infographic.html
http://makezine.com/craft/digital-paper-cuts/
Adobe Kuler
http://www.colorcom.com/research/why-color-matters
http://www.globalcolor.co.uk
http://www.colormatters.com/color-resources/research/57-color-symbolism/7-gender-differences
http://www.colormatters.com/color-resources/research/73-color-resources/research/79-colour-as-a-tool-for-e-branding
http://www.colormatters.com/color-resources/research

Practising logo design & Illustrator skills

I decided to practise my logo design and Illustrator skills before I went on to design a logo for myself, I found a logo on the internet that I considered to be bad design, analysed it, then re-designed it.

The company I chose was WinNET Systems, a company that deals with providing Cisco training towards Cisco CCIE Certification. I believe the logo is outdated with the shadow, the hierarchy is wrong especially with the centralisation of the word “Systems” and the larger S. I like the white line within the blue box as it makes the wording stand out more.

The Competitors  

The logos are very corporate, all seeming to use the same colours to indicate stability, intellect and expertise. The logo I am re-designing will need to stay within these guidelines but also appropriately target the correct audience which is middle aged technicians trying to achieve a CCIE  Voice Number which in turn will give a higher payslip. The logo will be used on the website and in any advertising the company do, therefore it can be simple and will standout from its competition.

I have done three different versions of the logo.

Firstly, I made a few minor adjustments to the design to modernise it and remove anything I found to be unnecessary, I ended up with this version of the logo:

I flattened the design to modernise it and gave the wording a lot more space to breathe as the original is very close with not much hierarchy. I decided to keep the same colour as it represents what the company stands for well.

Second design I gave it a bit more of an extreme makeover, using the original as a model but trying to be a little creative at the same time.

I removed the round edges and put the white line directly through the centre to give the logo space and hierarchy. I used the same fonts for both words, but just used a bold version on the top.

Lastly, I completely redesigned the logo with modern design, hierarchy and style in mind, I wanted to design something that would stand out from the competition.

I thought the best way to redesign this logo would be to redesign the whole organisation of the wording which is why the Win and Net appear separately. Putting the word Win in italics also makes the word stand out more, the word net in bold, just so you are aware that is also an important part of the branding. I think this logo has a much more modern and professional feel compared to the original.

References:

http://winnetsystems.co.uk/index.php/about-us

http://media.creativebloq.futurecdn.net/sites/creativebloq.com/files/images/2012/04/cs6illustrator.jpg(Featured Image)

British Petroleum Logo

Another simple yet fantastic logo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BP#mediaviewer/File:BP_Logo.svg), in three simple colours (http://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/about-bp/our-history/history-of-bp/special-subject-histories/bp-brand-and-logo.html) “a sunburst of green, yellow and white symbolizing dynamic energy in all its forms. It was called the Helios after the sun god of ancient Greece.”, and goes on talk about its aspirations as “better people, better products, big picture, beyond petroleum.”

Regardless of its declining overall profits from $17.1 Billion in 2012 to $13.4 Billion in 2013 (http://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/press/press-releases/fourth-quarter-2013-results.html), it is the seventh biggest petroleum supplier in the world, providing “2.056 million barrels of oil and 7.393 billion cubic feet of gas per day in 2012.” – (http://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/features/feature-the-10-biggest-oil-and-gas-companies-in-the-world/).

Green symbolises nature, growth, harmony and is considered a safe colour, yellow is associated with happiness, joy and energy while finally white stands for safety, cleanliness, innocence and purity (http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html). These are all things that a energy company would want to symbolise, regardless of the fact they are at heart none of these things, but instead an evil faceless corporation where money comes before life, personal wealth comes before the good of the planet. In understanding that black means power, death and evil, while dark purple evokes sad feelings, frustration and gloom, also red with associations of war, danger, strength and power, the logo should be redesigned to show these colours, just to prove how much colours can improve or degrade a company’s image. A more honest approach to the BP logo:

Not only does my mockup prove how much of a role that colours play in logos but also, how much a much it can change the impression the company in general.

The branding needs to be instantly recognisable as a logo , and does this terrifically, helped by sponsoring events and organisations to keep them in the public eye. Onee such example is the £10 Million to art sponsorship (British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Opera House and Tate Britain) (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16243960).

Interestingly the fibonacci sequence again is shown in the BP logo, they take advantage of the golden rule that means you divide two sequential numbers to create the number pie (http://www.banskt.com/blog/golden-ratio-in-logo-designs/). In this case imagine the area of the circles being added together to create the next biggest circle.

Featured Image: http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article9007490.ece/binary/original/bp-oil.jpg

Apple Logo

The apple logo (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Apple_logo_black.svg/834px-Apple_logo_black.svg.png) is a simple logo. Unlike many, It is one that doesn’t feature the name of the company in the logo but is still one of the worlds most recognised logo and has a 5/500 Fortune Ranking (http://fortune.com/company/aapl/). Rob Janoff is the designer responsible for creating the logo (http://robjanoff.com/applelogo/) Creating the logo he took 3 reasonably simple steps,

1 – Create the apple logo

2 – Add a bite to the edge for a sense of scale and distinction (allowing customers to instantly recognise what the logo is

3 – Add colour to the logo (representing the fact the mac II was the first computer with a colour display

There are a couple of unofficial reasons for the bite and these are the few factors I have found;

“The byte is a unit of digital information in computing and telecommunications that most commonly consists of eight bits.” – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte. The bite from the apple can be considered a play on words from the computer byte given it is all within the computer industry.

Another idea is that the bite was like taking a bite from the ‘forbidden fruit’ would make the company more desirable as wikipedia states here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_fruit) ” the fruit of good and evil was eaten by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. As a metaphor, the phrase typically refers to any indulgence or pleasure that is considered illegal or immoral.”. While Apple wouldn’t want their products to bee seen ‘illegal or immoral’, they would certain approve that their customers should be indulging in them and even taking pleasure from their use, this would put apple ahead of competition with just a logo.

Then there’s the fascinating story of Alan Turing. He was a British mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, computer scientist, mathematical biologist, and marathon/ultra distance runner. He was highly influential in the development of computer science, providing a formalisation of the concepts of “algorithm” and “computation” with the Turing machine, which can be considered a model of a general purpose computer. Turing is widely considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence.” – (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing). He was also responsible for the Fibonacci numbers in the leaf patterns of plants (http://www.turing.org.uk/bio/part8.html). He was a arrested for a sexual relationship with another man which was at the time illegal, “rather than go to prison he accepted, for the period of a year, injections of oestrogen intended to neutralise his libido.”. He died later having taken his own life after eating eating half an apple poisoned with cyanide.

Now theres an interesting concept within the Apple design itself, it actually falls right into place with the fibonacci sequence. I found (http://twentytwowords.com/breaking-the-apple-logo-down-fibonacci-style/)

this image that perfectly shows how the apple logo can be split up using the the circles created by the sequence into its perfect formation. Again another way of understanding how fibonacci is used is to watch this fantastic animation(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GHDU9tW1_c).

Featured Image: http://wallpaperswide.com/apple_logo_white-wallpapers.html

Fibonacci Sequence

The first part of my research brought my attention to the fibonacci sequence which is all about creating a ‘golden ratio’ I managed to research a lot of companies that all use this sequence when creating their logo. The Fibonacci sequence is the following sequence of numbers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number);

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144…

They are based upon the fact that “each subsequent number is the sum of the previous two”. The sequence created by “Gustav Theodor Fechner” (http://www.banskt.com/blog/golden-ratio-in-logo-designs/). A man by the name of Leonardo Fibonacci then went on to develop this further by introducing the idea that if you divided two sequential numbers you would arrive at the number pie. Using the Fibonacci sequence to create this image of the perfect rectangle.   There are many examples of the fibonacci spiral used in history, nature, our universe and general physics. It is seen as the “universal constant of design”.

I think it is an extremely important part of design that i happen to have stumbled across, as it appears in so many aspects of life without us realising, and I am going prove this.

Universally (http://mathforum.org/mathimages/imgUpload/Galaxy.jpg)

Earth – Hurricane Sandy (https://akbrodie.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/b36ab-fibonaccispiralhurricanesandy.jpg)

Egypt Pyramids (http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/1329/giza9999.jpg)

Spiral Staircase (https://akbrodie.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/a9596-apple-stair-fib-curve-lr.gif)

Faces (http://io9.com/5985588/15-uncanny-examples-of-the-golden-ratio-in-nature)

The Human Body (http://1111now.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/fibonacci-sequence-in-the-hand.jpg)

A Leaf (https://akbrodie.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/8de58-4707140963_16e4f1d513_z.jpg)

This video very nicely puts into perspective how incredible the sequence really is (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkGeOWYOFoA#t=107). Not only is this all relevant to nature, and certain physics but is also common across many company logos. I will continue my research into logos using this sequence.

Creative Futures ~ Brief

My brief is to create a logo, this logo is going to represent me as a student, the work that I produce, something I will be able to use to brand my work as my own and become instantly recognisable to the people who view it. With little knowledge of branding, I plan to study and revise key concepts that will affect my final design.

Initial thoughts on my logo are that I want it to be based upon the name “BRODIE” so it is instantly recognisable as my own, it should be somewhat relatable to a computer or the web as i am a web designer. I have written these initial thoughts before I start my research so that you can see how my ideas develop after I have researched further into the world of branding.